A hilarious homage to LucasArts point-and-click adventure games. Downloadable free at www.Zombie-Cow.com.
"Ben There, Dan That!" is the amusing point-and-click adventure about two average Joes who go from being a couple of sarcastic, wise-cracking schlubs to a couple of sarcastic, wise-cracking dimension-hoppers when an effort to fix their TV transports them onto an Alien spaceship. The only way they're going to find their way home is by jumping in and out of a variety of alternative realities, ranging from a zombie wasteland to a Dinosaur laden cubicle farm, until they can solve the mysteries that lay before them. Along the way, they will be collecting items, combining items, using items, and killing lots and lots of innocent by-standers.
The game, which can be downloaded at no cost from creator Zombie Cow's website, is a great first foray into the old-style adventure genre for the company. There are references galore to many of the classic LucasArts titles that many of us look back upon fondly. It offers a nice variety of puzzles ranging in an appropriate amount of difficulty and does a good job keeping the player entertained as it throws joke after joke at them, most hitting their target squarely.
Where the game is less successful is in its storytelling and structure. The team has opted to avoid the use of plot to encourage gameplay, simply sprinkling cut scenes of vaque dialogue between a couple of aliens intermittently to advance the story. It is rare that anything dealing with story is actually discovered while exploring or solving puzzles. Instead, the player controls Ben as Dan tags along to flip light switches and make wisecracks, a la Max from "Sam and Max Hit the Road." During these times, the game becomes very formulaic. The game is really as simple as having an alien hallway littered with a number of doors, each of which has an item-shaped lock that must be opened using something obtained from a previously visited dimension. It is a weak system to push the game forward, but being as the game is more about solving puzzles and excellent dialogue, it is easy to overlook.
The graphics are simple, but appealing, though they may strive too hard to be similar to their forerunners. Opting to go without voice acting is an acceptable decision, but making the dialogue lines grainy, stretched, and difficult to read is not. Aside from that mistake, which is fixed in its sequel, "Time Gentlemen, Please," everything else is a pleasure to look at and filled with humorous references.
Anybody looking for a modern game on the cheap that exists purely to pay homage to games of old is going to have a blast picking up this title. Whether it be a reference to Gordon Freeman and his crowbar or a world where everyone is blessed with not-so-super powers, there is always something to smile at and a reason to see this game through to its shocking cliffhanger of a conclusion.